Democratic Army of Greece

The Democratic Army of Greece (DSE) was the army founded by the Communist Party of Greece during the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949. DSE evolved from the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS), the World War II-era communist resistance movement in Greece, and its 50,000 fighters sought to create a communist republic and overthrow the monarchy. Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia assisted the DSE during the war, but the side effects of the split between Titoism and Stalinism, increased American aid to the government, and the DSE's failure to attract more recruits resulted in the DSE being defeated in 1949.